Establishment of a flavor preference in rats: Importance of nursing and weaning experience.

Maternal ingestion of ortho-aminoacetophenone during gestation affects intake by offspring

“…Adult mice exposed to OAP for a similar duration, however, responded no differently than their respective controls. Further, simple exposures rarely induce persistent changes in dietary selection (6,7,10,33).…”

Retention of internal experiences in juvenile and adult rats

“…Therefore, retention of the prior sucrose experience interfered with the establishment of an aversion in adult, but not in juvenile, rats. The inability of juvenile rats to recall prior sucrose experience on the I-day test is surprising, since Capretta and Rawls (1974) observed that juvenile rats retain a preference for mother's milk over a 33-day interval. Capretta and Rawls (1974) used a minimum of 5 days of postweaning sucrose experience with a maximum of 24 days of sucrose exposure (which includes the 19 days of nursing).…”

“…The inability of juvenile rats to recall prior sucrose experience on the I-day test is surprising, since Capretta and Rawls (1974) observed that juvenile rats retain a preference for mother's milk over a 33-day interval. Capretta and Rawls (1974) used a minimum of 5 days of postweaning sucrose experience with a maximum of 24 days of sucrose exposure (which includes the 19 days of nursing). This extended exposure, compared to the present study, may account for the discrepancy in observed retention of sucrose-only exposures in the S juvenile rats on the I-day test.…”

“…Capretta and Rawls (1974) found that pups reared on garlic milk showed a strong preference for this flavor when tested 1 month later. The present study attempted to investigate the retention of a nonpoisoned taste experience by young and adult rats and its effect on the subsequent attempts to establish an aversion to that taste.…”

Necessary and sufficient conditions for communication of diet preferences by Norway rats

“…If one wishes to demonstrate that either simple exposure to an odor or eating a food with a given odor alters later preference for foods having that odor, it is customary to use highly volatile odorants (peppermint extract, garlic extract, etc.) and to expose subjects to the relevant odor on numerous occasions before testing for alterations in preference (Capretta & Rawls, 1974;Leon, Galef, & Behse, 1977;Posadas-Andrews & Roper, 1983).…”